Journey to Destiny
by EllaFant
Summary: Following the adventures of the original character Zokan Ross, human hunter of Old Earth, in the universe of Destiny.
1. chapter 1

Chapter 1: The Awakening to Destiny

The first thing I remember is waking in the snowy fields of Old Russia. The first thing I felt was the cold press of the snow against my stiff body and the brisk wind rushing passed my bare face The first thing I heard was the exited beeping of a Ghost. And finally, I opened my eyes.

The first thing I saw was the blinding light of the sun in my face, which was not helped by the reflection of the snow. Once my eyes adjusted to the sun, I could see the little blue robot looking down at me with wonder in his eye.

It wasn't till then that I began to question things. _Where am I? How did I get here?_ All questions I wasn't sure the little robot before me had any answers to. I was just about to try asking anyway when I heard a sound coming from the distance, like an explosion.

"We should go now," the ghost called out to me.

"But..."

"There's no time to explain. We have to go," the ghost interrupted. Just then I heard the sound again, except louder, closer. I struggled to move and stand up with my stiff body, but running to catch up with the ghost came easily.

"My ship is hidden in that warehouse," cried the ghost as we ran. I could see the large warehouse in the distance, covered in snow.

When we got closer, I could start to see figures standing in front of it. The ghost seemed to notice them too, as he stopped abruptly infront of me. I stopped too, nearly running into him.

"Well, there goes plan A," he said. "The Vex are blocking the entrance. Now for plan B," he turned to look at me. "Your gonna have to defend yourself if we're gonna get in there," he gestured towards the snow. I looked down and noticed the hilt of a sniper rifle sticking out of the snow. I reached down to pick it up, and as I pulled it out of the snow, I saw the skeleton of a hand holding onto it. I jumped back, yanking the gun from the hand and I watched as it flopped back onto the snow, dead.

The rifle felt comfortable in my hands, like I was used to holding one, but I had no recollection of doing so. I held the gun up to my face and aimed at one of the figures. I aimed at its head and fired. Perfect head shot, instant kill.

"If you keep that up, we might just make it out of here alive," commented the ghost. I found out later that insta-killing a moving target wasn't so easy.

We made our way into the warehouse, checking every dark corner for Vex. I kept my gun close and stayed vigilant. We gradually moved deeper and deeper into the warehouse, trying to silence all the questions stirring up in my mind. I couldn't ask them, not yet. I killed any Vex I saw, but soon, there was a swarm of them; when I turned to get one another shot me from behind.

Shots didn't hurt much due to the bulletproof armor I woke up in. Great, another question for later. A lot of shots at once, though, was another story.

"Take cover," I heard the ghost call out. I found one of the many wooden crates to crouch behind. I found that doing this made it a lot easier to shoot while also avoiding fire at the same time, so I kept the strategy in mind.

The Vex had the same idea, as I noticed one or two hiding behind similar crates, which forced me to wait until one popped their head out to shoot.

We finally found our way into the center of the warehouse where the ship was resting. I quickly had to find cover when I noticed a large Vex guarding the ship, a captain perhaps. I would have to be cleaver facing him. To many hits from him, and that's it.

I circled around him, dodging from one cover to the next, getting head shots as I went, but the Vex's energy shield made my shots make little difference.

"Here," the ghost said. "Try this." I looked down where he was gesturing to and noticed a large gun, which must have been dropped by a Vex. I slung my current gun over my shoulder and picked up the new gun. It was much heavier than than the first, which lead me to believe that it could also do more damage. I held the gun near my face and aimed it at the Vex, who was scanning the room for me. I fired, and I was right. The gun did a significant amount of damage compared to the first.

The Vex Captain quickly noticed me and aimed his own gun, but I dodged back into cover just in time.

I continued my previous routine of running around the room except with my new gun, and finally, a head shot knocked him from his feet, dead.

Quickly, the ghost and I hurried onto the shuttle. I heard the bullets from leftover Vex flying past my head as we went in. Soon, the ghost started the engine; a low humming noise was heard and I could feel the aircraft start to lift from the ground. The engine got louder as we got higher, and through the hole in the roof, blasted into space, leaving the dangers of Old Russia behind.

We were flying through space, we were quiet for a moment, until I finally decided to speak up.

"Why?" I asked. The ghost looked up at me. "Why," I repeated. "Why did you save me?" He was quiet for a moment, before saying, "Because I need you," he paused. "No. Because the universe needs you," I started, waiting for an explanation. He continued, "Thousands of years ago, the earth was alone, and at peace, until it came." There was a pause before an explanation to what 'it' wa came. "They called it, the traveler. For years it provided humanity with new technologies and weapons they had never seen before. And peace remained, until, following the traveler, came the Vex, and many others. They wanted to steal the travelers life force, and use it to take over the universe. To remake it into its own, evil image."

The ghost looked out, and saw the entirety of the traveler before us. At that point, we were hovering over a grand city on earth, bitting time for the ghost to explain. "I was created by the traveler, along with hundreds of others, to go out in search for fallen warriors, and revive them, so that they may fight again. It's what we've been doing since the beginning of the war," the thought sent an acing feeling in my stomach, the thought of hundreds of lives being taken by war, just to be revived again, to die in the war, and be revived again. Forever and ever, on an endless loop, through an endless war.

The ghost looked back at me again. "Oh, and my name is Orion. Some people call me Ori but I think that's kind of dumb but I mean..." Ori trailed off as I continued to stare out at the traveler. Hundreds of lives taken, rekindled, and taken again, for some giant orb in the sky that they don't even understand. I began to wonder how many times I could've died, and was brought back to life for this war.

"And your name is Zokan," Ori interrupted my thoughts. _Zokan,_ I thought. It was the only thing I've heard so far that I recognized. I looked back at Ori.

"How many others have you revived before me?" I asked.

"Well actually," he said. "Your my first. I am the latest Ghost model." _Which means no previous experience to fall back on._ "Well, this should be fun," he said as he began to land the ship. We unboarded, and I looked out unto the grand, beautiful city.

"Welcome," Ori said. "To the last city on earth."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: The Calling to Destiny

We landed at the Guardian Tower and departed the ship.

"We should hurry inside," Ori said. "Cayde-6 has a mission for us,"

"Who?" I asked.

"He, basically runs the place," Ori replied. "Well, the hunter faction, that is. There are other factions too. The Titan and the Warlock, but they aren't your concern right now."

"And he has a mission for me?"

"As a guardian," Ori explained, "You are the protector of the people of the last safe City on earth. You answer the call of those in distress, and defend what little we have left of innocent lives, and hope." I considered the idea of having a purpose, a goal. But the thing is, I never agreed to this, I never got the choice. I was just thrown into this, with no one considering what I wanted.

"Ok," I replied, not feeling like I have much of a choice but to accept, at least, not at the moment. "How did you know he had a mission for me?"

"We ghosts are, sort of, virtually connected to some of the people here. They send me requests and I respond to them, every time, It's what I was made to do," I realized then that I wasnt the only one trapped like this. Ori obviously has free will, choice, but is condemned to obey every command he receives at any time, for the 'good of us all,' he says. I wasn't so certain.

We headed down into the tower and walked straight down the hall into what seemed like a meeting room of sorts. There were three people, (or what I assumed were people), standing around the table. Ori showed me which was the leader of the Hunter faction, which made me assume the other two people were the leaders of the other two factions. I started to wonder then how I was sorted into the Hunter faction. I looked at the other two faction leaders. One had light blue skin and the other was a woman wearing purple robes. The one that I was to speak to, Cayde-6, was clearly a robot of sorts, which explains his name. Cayde-6 probably isn't his name, but what he is. That's his type. I started to wonder if he was forced into this too. Just like Ori, he was built, given a task and was required to complete it. I wondered what would happen to someone who just didn't obey. I didn't want to think about it.

The robot caught my gaze as I approached.

"Welcome, guardian." said the droid. "We have been expecting you," I stopped in front of him, not sure how to react. "I have a Hunter class mission ready for you," he pulled up a virtual map on the table before him. "This is Russia, of Old Earth," he said. "We have intel that the Fallen have plans of their next attack at this base," he pointed at a location on the map, which I just happened to notice was near the exact same warehouse I had just escaped from. Oh, come on. I just left there and now you're asking me to go back? I thought. "Your mission is to sneak into the base, collect the plans and return here alive,"

"Understood," I said and turned to leave.

"Wait," the droid called me back and I turned around. "Your gun," he said. "It looks rather worn, yes?" I looked at the rifle strapped across my back. I did notice then, that it had old rust spots and stains covering the barrel and grip. "How about you use this one instead." I looked up and saw that he was now holding a rifle in his hands. It looked new and powerful, especially compared to the one I already had. I lifted the gun from Cayde's robotic hands and examend it. He was right about one thing, if I wanted to defend myself, I was gonna have to use the best equipment possible. I just hopped this would cut it, at least for the time being. "I wish you a safe return home," Cayde said, implying it was time to take my leave. I nodded and began walking down the hallway and back up the stairs. Ori teleported me back into the ship and we took off, right back to wear we just came from.

"Why am I a hunter?" I asked Ori once on the shuttle. He looked up at me, as if I had interrupted him from a deep thought.

"Oh," he said. "Well, guardians are placed into factions based on the talents that they have. Warlocks are good at using magic and titans are strong defenders. You, as a hunter, excel at long distance shooting and are skilled at knife combat." That explained my ability to kill those Vex from so far away while in Russia, but I haven't even tried to use a knife yet. I'll have to sometime. "First time guardians are tested to be placed in a faction, but you must have already taken the test in one of your other lives," Again, with the other lives. I just wished I could remember what I did in my other lives. Did I think any of the same things then as I am now? Did I understand why everything is how it is better then? Probably. As far as I know right now, there's no way I will ever remember, so I will just have to make due with what I've got.

We landed onto Old Russia near the enemy base. Ori and I were teleported off the ship and we began walking towards the base. As I walked, I knew that no matter what was about to happen to me, I had Ori by my side, and I was sure that if I were to die, he would just revive me again. Except I wouldn't remember anything about being alive in the first place. What if that's what happened to me just now? I thought. Ori and I were on a mission, I died and Ori had to explain everything all over again? I shuddered at the thought, wondering how many times Ori has told me who I was. I could only think of one thing that would prevent that from happening again, don't die.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Meeting of Destiny

I could see what I assumed to be the 'base' I was supposed to go to in the distance. I was walking towards it, on high alert in case any Fallen pop out from behind a rock or bush.

"You know you don't have to walk," Ori said from behind me. I stopped and turned around to face him.

"What do you mean?" I said. I watched as a motorcycle like vehicle appeared before me, hovering off the ground.

"This is your sparrow," the ghost explained. "Well, at least for now," I assumed that this was my vehicle of choice in my previous life. I mounted the sparrow and pressed my foot on the pedal to start it. The sparrow started moving faster than I anticipated and I began speeding uncontrollably down the vast terrain of Old Russia.

"How do I stop this thing!" I shouted, just barely able to hang on to the handlebars.

"There should be a brake pedal right next to the accelerate," Ori said in a calm voice, as if nothing bad was even happening. I quickly found the brake pedal and slowed to a stop. I struggled to catch my breath, and even more so to understand how I could have possibly braked while hovering in mid-air. As I looked up, I saw the Fallen Old Russia base before me.

"Well, look at that," Ori said. "Were already here," Now all that was needed to be done was walk in.

I kept my gun close to me, as I have done before as I walked towards the entrance of the base.

"This place will be swarming with Fallen, so keep your guard up," Ori suggested, which I gladly agreed to. Finally, I was there, and just as quickly, one of the Fallen appeared. I quickly shot it down but soon another appeared. Eventually, there was a whole swarm of Fallen and I ran through the halls of the building, shooting down Fallen as I went. _Just get in, get the data, and get out before I'm killed._ I thought to myself as I ran. There was no getting rid of these guys. More and more as I ran deeper and deeper into the base.

The Fallen wasn't exactly amazing shots, I haven't gotten hit yet, until finally, _bang._ I got hit in the arm with something hard. My armor was protective enough, but what I got hit with was unlike anything I had felt so far. I used my free hand to cover the wound when all the sudden, _bang._ Another critical hit, this time in the leg. I popped up to one foot and was forced to take cover. I sat down behind a metal plate in the building, hoping no one would be able to spot me from where I was. I began to imagine what sort of weapon hit me. Perhaps a giant gun with missile-like bullets for ammo. I had never heard of a Fallen wielding such a weapon, though that's not saying much.

As I waited, the wounds continued to grow more and more agonizing. I wasn't sure I was going to make it. I thought about what might happen if I died here today. Not that it mattered. All that would happen is that I would eventually get brought back to life and probably get, sent on the same mission, and die again, over and over.

As I thought about this, I stared up at the ceiling, waiting, when suddenly, I saw movement, like someone was up there, clinging to the support beams. At first, I thought the blood loss was causing me to hallucinate, so I started to relax again until I saw it again. I stood up straight and strained to see who was up there. Not one of the Fallen, but a person, shooting down the Fallen as I sat there and watched. The figure acted like he had done this a million times before, killing one Fallen after the next with ease, and the Fallen themselves didn't even seem to notice.

Eventually, every Fallen in the area must have been taken out, because there was silence. Either that or I had finally lost hearing in my ears. I saw the figure jump down from the ceiling right in front of me. He had black hair, with black eyes to match, a gruff face, muscular body and a 6-o'clock shadow with old torn up clothes. He strapped his rifle on to his back and stared at me, with alert yet curious eyes. My wounds were so bad, I could hardly move. All I could do was watch. The man picked me up and slung me over his shoulder and began to walk away, leaving me to stare at the ground, and eventually, pass out.

I woke up, having been sat up against a tree. I looked up and saw a campfire alight in front of me. I was still dazed from the blood loss, but the wounds themselves wear feeling a lot better. I looked down at my injured arm and saw was look like leaves and a paste of sorts covering it. The same went for my leg. I looked around to see the man who had saved me sitting by the fire, cooking what looked like a rabbit leg attached to the stick he was holding on to. He looked up at me and said,

"You awake yet?" I stared at him, wide-eyed but remained speechless. The man put his attention back on his meal. Soon, he lifted up the stick, pulled the leg off and took a large chunk out of the meat. I soon remembered how long it's been since I've eaten, which would be, not as far as I could remember. I stared at the leg as the man helped himself to it. Eventually, he looked back up at me again. He must have noticed where my eyes wear and asked, "You hungry?" without waiting for an answer, he ripped off a chunk of the meat and tossed it towards me. I caught the food in mid-air, using reflexes I didn't know I had. I quickly ate the piece of meat, feeling satisfied afterward.

"You should try to get back to sleep," the man suggested. "You've had a big day," before I could even think to protest, the man put out the fire with a bucket of water that had been sitting near him and walked into the tent, which had been pitched up right behind him. I soon felt exhaust overcome me, and with it, sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Alliance of Destiny

The next time I woke up was with the blinding light of the rising sun on my eyes. The morning air was cool against my skin. I found myself sitting in the same place and position I was in when I had fallen asleep the night before. The smell of roasted rabbit thigh caused my stomach to rumble and my eyes to look up and see the same man who had saved me from the Fallen base the night before cooking the same rabbit he was cooking then, already half eaten. With the sunlight upon the stranger's face, I could notice old scars and battle wounds standing out against his skin when it was too dark for me to notice before.

He noticed me awake and looked up at me. "You awake again?" he asked. He smiled at my lack of response."It's alright if your feeling shy," he said. He snapped off the other leg of the rabbit and handed it to me. My body felt stiff as I moved to put the meat in my mouth. As I ate, the man tried to strike up conversation with me. "So, what were you doing in the Fallen base anyway?" he asked. I swallowed what I already had in my mouth and struggled to speak.

"A mission…" I said. "I was given a mission to gather information," I thought it might not be wise to give a total stranger that kind of information, but than again, if I don't trust the stranger, who am I supposed to trust? Everyone is a stranger to me. I'm not left with much of a choice.

"A mission?" he asked. "Seems more like a death sentence to me. You weren't nearly prepared enough to tackle what was in there," he paused before saying, "Who sent you on a mission?"

"Cayde-6," I answered.

"And that is?" He asked. I was surprised that he didn't know something so apparently obvious, but I can't just assume that everyone knows everything about the Guardians. Maybe he's more like me that I thought, but that wouldn't explain his high skill-level though.

"The head of the Hunter faction," I was hoping he could figure the rest out from that.

"You mean from the Guardians?" he asked. "Are you one of them, a Guardian?"

"I guess so," I replied, not sure what else to say.

"How long have you been a Guardian?" he asked.

"Not long," I said. "This was going to be my first mission,"

"Huh," he said, sounding puzzled. I knew what he was probably thinking, That was your first mission and it was there? The stranger continued.

"So, if your a Guardian, than that means you were brought back to life. How long have you been alive?"

"About a day,"

"A day? You mean you only have the memories of one day?"

"Yup," I said. This all seems fascinating to him, but completely normal to me.

"You have next to no experience with a gun or combat or anything!"

"Well…" I wasn't sure if what he said was necessarily true. "I might have had experience with a gun before I died, so I can handle a gun at least pretty well. It's kind of like how I can still speak the english language. I know how to speak it somehow,"

"Oh," he said. "So that means you might have other talents and abilities from before you died that you don't even know you have,"

"I guess so," I said. The only way I could know what other abilities I have is by knowing who I was before I died, which is an impossible question to answer. I guess I could just try a whole lot of different things and see what I'm good at.

"And don't you have a Ghost? You know, the little robot that first brought you back?" Suddenly, I remembered. Ori! I started looking around myself, until I noticed the little metal point sticking out of my coat pocket.

I grabbed onto the metal point and pulled out the sleeping ghost, who startled awake upon me doing so.

"What?" he shouted. "Where am I?" I let him go so he could hover in the air next to me.

"He must of gotten knocked out last night at the base," the stranger said.

"And who is this?" Ori asked with puzzlement across his face.

"Good question," I replied and turned my attention towards the stranger.

"Pardon me for the lack of introduction," the man apologized. "My name is Reece, Reece Bourne. And you are?" Ori leaned in close to me.

"Maybe you shouldn't tell this man who you are," he suggested. "You don't even know who he is," It's a bit too late for that. I've already told him too much.

"Zokan," I said. "Zokan Ross," Ori rolled his eye and sighed in defeat.

"A pleasure," replied Reece. "And your little friend?"

"Orion," said Ori. For some reason, he was reluctant to let him know my name, but was all too happy to share his own. "Well, some of my friends call me Ori but you don't have too…"

"A pleasure to meet you Ori," Reece interrupted.I decided to ask a question that had been in my mind for a while now.

"Why did you save me?" I asked. "From the Fallen base," he paused for a while before replying. "I was going to infiltrate the base so I could get information as to where there keeping the prisoners."

"Prisoners?" I asked.

"A few weeks ago, back in my home town, the Fallen came and kidnaped several people,"

"But why?" I asked.

"The people they took where builders, important ones. A long time ago, they helped make repairs on the Traveler when it was damaged. It is said that the Traveler gave the mechanics seacret instructions as to how to repair it. I think the Fallen want to torture that information out of the mechanics so they can figure out how to destroy the Traveler. I have to find and free them,"

"Who told you to do that?" I asked.

"No one," he said. "I have been protecting the people of my town for years. I do it because it is what has to be done," I was moved by his words. A hero, defending his people, just because he knows it's the right thing to do. This one man might be doing more to stop the Fallen than the Guardians are. "I saved you because I didn't want to watch you die," and I came here just because I was given orders to. That's it. Nothing else. I looked up to Reece. I wanted to be like Reece. If I was going to do anything in this life, I was to try to protect people, just like him.

"Soon, I'll will have to go back to the base to get the information," he said. "Maybe if we work together, we can get back into the base and find the information we need,"

"You don't need my help," I sighed. "Last time I was there I almost got killed,"

"True," said Reece. "But here's one thing. You have a ghost," I looked up at Ori, who had been watching and listening the whole time.

"Who, me?" Ori said, sounding startled.

"Your ghost should be able to collect data from the Fallen base computer mainframe,"

"Well, that is one of my specialties," Ori said sounding flattered.

" I don't know how I was planning on doing it," said Reece. "But if the prisoners location and the information you're looking for is on the Fallen's database, Ori could be just who we need,"

"Aww, stop it," if Ori could blush, he was doing it. I tried to stand up but was forced to grip my injured leg in pain. Reece pushed me back down to the ground.

"You should rest up for a while before we get going," Reece suggested. "The ointment I put on the wounds should help soon," Reece put out the fire he had used to cook breakfast with and started putting down the tent. I was left to wonder what was to come next. We would get into the base, get the information we need, Reece would go rescue the prisoners and I would get the info back to Cayde-6. We could both me heros, exactly what I wanted to be.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Search of Destiny

I let my leg rest for a bit as Reece got us ready to go. By the time he was done, I was able to stand up and walk just enough to get onto my sparrow. Reece had a motorbike similar to mine, but it looked much older and more worn down. We drove together back down the empty planes of Old Russia and back to the Fallen base.

The ride to the base was longer than I had assumed it would be. Reece had gotten quite a ways away from the base, in hopes of no further contact from the Fallen, at least until I could get back on my feet. I noticed that as we were riding our sparrows that I had a Guardian helmet on my head, but when I looked over at Reece, he had no protective gear, just the ragged old clothes on his body. I guess that he had no need for the gear with the skill he already possessed. But then again, who knows what kind of skills and abilities I might possess?

The sun had reached its peak in the sky by the time we returned to the base. I dismounted the sparrow and allowed Ori to teleport it back to the hold in the ship as I reached for the rifle on my back to carry with me inside the base. Reece did the same, except his motorcycle stayed parked on the grassy field, leaning onto a nearby structure. It should stay hidden there for as long as we need it to be.

With our guns at the ready, Reece and I headed back into the Fallen base entry. I could feel the nerves and fear from the last time I had been starting to seep into my stomach, making me quiver as I moved.

"You sure you'll be ok?" asked Reece. I nodded slowly, but the truth was, I couldn't be sure about anything, but I had gotten used to the risks of uncertainty by now.

We stepped into the base. I was sure there would be an attack or an ambush at any moment, but there was silence. The bodies of the Fallen Reece had taken down the previous day were scattered about the floor. We stepped over them as we walked closer to the center of the base, the control center, hopefully.

Making our way past the entry room, we came upon another room, one filled with crates containing all sorts of weapons and equipment.

"This must be where the Fallen here kept their supplies," said Reece. "We should be getting close," inside one of the crates, I noticed a small, round disk, one that you might put in a disk-player. I thought to myself that the disk could have important information on it, so I picked it up and shoved it into one of my pockets, just in case.

We made it passed the storage room and into a larger room, with a large computer in the center.

"The motherboard!" shouted Reece. He ran towards the computer and ushered me over. "Come on!" he shouted. "Let's get the information and get out of here. There might still be Fallen left somewhere in here, and we don't want to be found out,"

I quickly raced over to him and deployed my Ghost. Now hovering over my hand, Ori began scanning the computer's interface for information.

"I should be able to find the location of your friends Reece," Ori said encouragingly. "It should be in here somewhere," we waited for a few moments before Ori said, "I'm not finding anything in here that has to do with the location of any prisoners. It's not in here."

"What!" Reece exclaimed, sounding shocked. "No, wait. It's got to be in there somewhere," suddenly, an alarm sounded and big red flashing lights went off. "It's a trap!" shouted Reece and we started heading back the direction we came. We blasted through the door, only to be stopped by an army of Fallen. I started glancing around furiously until I spotted a large window high up on the wall.

"There!" I shouted, pointing up at it. "Let's get out of here!" Reece easily ran up the wall and pulled himself through the window and perched on the window seal. I tried to follow him, but I wasn't strong enough to pull myself up. I guess making dramatic escapes wasn't one of my hidden abilities. The Fallen started shooting at us. I was still wearing my Guardian armor, but what happened last time still scared me. Reece's arm stretched down towards me.

"Come on! Get up!" he shouted. I reached for his hand and tried to kick off the wall for a boost, but it was no use. The Fallen was quickly advancing towards us, and I pulled my gun off my back and started shooting the Fallen down, but there was too many. I started to think that this was it when I felt a hand grab my arm and pull me up towards the window. "Come on now," said Reece. "You don't think I was gonna let you go that easily, now did ya?" Together, Reece and I jumped through the window and fell to the ground on the other side. I looked up and saw Reece's sparrow still parked where we had left it.

We began sprinting towards the vehicle and listening to the sound of the Fallen start to run around the base to catch up to us. Ori popped out of wherever he had been and summoned my sparrow to my side.

"Once we get far enough away from the base, I can teleport us to the ship," Ori said. On our sparrows, Reece and I began speeding down towards the ship and through enemy fire. I noticed that some of the Fallen had their own vehicles, and started chasing us down with them. I pulled out my own gun from behind and started shooting as many down as I can while listening to bullets whizz past my face as I did.

"When will we be close enough to the ship!" I shouted through the wind to Ori.

"Just… a little… longer," Ori said, focusing on where we were and the ship. I watched as the Fallen army drew closer and closer. A second too long, and were done for. "Almost there… and," the Fallen had gained upon us. Just one shot in the wrong place and… "NOW!" Suddenly, the whole world vanished from view and reappeared inside the ship. "Made it," Ori exclaimed in relief. I looked out the ship's window and watched as we got higher and higher in the sky, further and further away from the Fallen, until we broke orbit. "Let's, not do that again," Ori suggested and fell to the ground in exhaustion. I turned around saw Reece, lying on the ground with his sparrow lying next to him.

"Reece!" I shouted and ran towards him.

"I'm ok," he said, trying to pick himself up. "Ah," he winced in pain. "My leg," I looked down at his leg to see a bullet wound, slowly spilling blood. "I have bandages… in my bag," he said. I quickly zipped open the bag on his back. I found the bandages and started wrapping them around the wound. He winced in pain again as I did so.

"It's ok," I said, trying to calm him down. "I got it," I finished wrapping the bandage and helped him sit up on his own.

"The base," said Reece. "They must have known we would go in there looking for the information. They must have relocated it. It was a trap," he turned to me. "We have to find it, Zokan. We have to save those prisoners, before…" he trailed off, the blood loss taking over him.

"I know Reece," I said. "We'll find them, I promise," and with that, he passed out in my arms. I heard Ori hovering over my shoulder.

"There's a room he can rest in," I heard him say. "Follow me," I placed my arms underneath his limp, unconscious body and lifted him up. I carried him, following Ori into a room with a bed. Carefully, I laid Reece down on the bed. "He should wake up here in a couple hours," said Ori. "You know, you should get some rest too. After all, Reece isn't the only one still recovering," I looked down at the wound on my own leg, still covered up. It didn't hurt that bad anymore, but I couldn't argue that I wasn't exhausted from the previous events.

I walked to my own room and lied down in my own bed. I thought about how Reece had saved me from the base, and how I had just saved him, for no reason other than that I didn't want to see him die. We needed each other, and maybe one day I can be a hero just like him.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: The Crash of Destiny

The light of the rising sun piercing through the windows of the ship is what woke me up that morning. It took a moment before I started to recall the events of the night before. Then I realized…. Reece. I jumped out of bed and ran into the room Reece had been sleeping in, but he wasn't there. The covers on the bed had been pulled back as if he had gotten out all by himself. Suddenly, I heard a noise coming from another room. I ran in the direction of the noise to investigate. I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw Reece in the kitchen, standing up on his own, though only on one leg, and making himself breakfast.

"Morning," he said casually. "Sleep well?"

"Are you alright?" I asked, shocked he wasn't lying in bed, moaning in pain.

"Never better," he said. "You?"

"Well I'm fine," I said. "I wasn't the one who got shot in the leg last night and passed out from blood loss,"

"Oh, this?" he asked, looking down at his injured leg. "It's nothing. I've lived through worse," with that, he took his plate of fried eggs and sat at the table. "Maybe you should eat something,"

"Where did you get those eggs?" I asked.

"In here," Reece got back up and limped towards a door I hadn't noticed there before. He opened it up and it was full of all sorts of food. "This should last the two of us for months," added Reece. "It's like this whole ship is a mini house. You Guardians and so fancy,"

"I guess so," I said, still knowing very little about the Guardians. I watched Reece limp back to his chair and sit back down. I almost felt bad for him, watching him limp around like that, but according to him, it's nothing.

I walked towards the door full of food, a pantry of sorts, and got myself my own eggs. Although I had no memories of ever making myself fried eggs, I was able to make them fairly easily. If I could choose all the hidden skills I could have, making eggs would not be one of them. I took my plate of eggs to the seat next to Reece and sat down beside him. Once we finished our meal, we began discussing plans.

"So we know that the information isn't in the base we were just at, so it could be at a different one," said Reece.

"Ture," I replied. "And the Fallen didn't have enough time to get the information very far, only a day. Maybe the information is in another Fallen base only a day away from the one we were just at,"

"I have a map of the area," Ori said finally. He popped out from my coat pocket and projected a hologram of a map in front of us. I quickly found the base where we had just been and was relieved to see that there was only one other base just a day away.

"Here," I said, pointing to the base. "Just north of the base we just came from. The information has got to be here."

"Then we should head out there quickly," Reece suggested. "We shouldn't give them any more time then they've already gotten," just then, I heard Ori start up the ship, and felt the sudden jolt of acceleration forward.

"Since the Fallen were traveling on the ground, what would take them a day to get here will only take us about an hour," Ori said. "I suggest you get comfortable,"

"Shouldn't be too hard," said Reece. "With this mini home you've got here," he turned to me. I had no idea how rich and powerful the Guardians must be, not only are there ships like mini homes with stocks of food, but they have the best armor, the best weapons, it's like whatever they need, whenever they need it, they're gonna get it, no matter what. I could make a pretty accurate guess as to why that's the case. It must be the traveler. It was the one who gave the humans the supplies and resources they needed to fight off the Fallen, and because of that, the chosen Guardians became the most powerful humans on the planet. What if one day they used their wealth and power to do something else, other than protecting the traveler, something bad. It's not like anyone could stop them.

Just a few minutes had passed when a heard a loud thud coming from somewhere towards the back of the ship. I spun around to see a large dent pocking inwards towards us.

"What was that?" Reece called out.

"Let me go check," I stood up from the table and walked towards the back of the ship. There was a window nearby the dent that had thankfully not been fractured by the impact. I stepped towards it and peered outside. Three large ships were right on our tail, following us.

"Uh, Ori?" I quietly called out to my little friend, as if I had spoken too loud, whoever was on the ship would hear. "Whose that?" Ori came hovering by my side and peered out the window.

"Oh, no," he groaned. "That's not good,"

"Wait, what is it?" I demanded.

"There are Fallen ships after us," Ori replied. "They must have retreated back to their own ships once they saw us take off," he hovered over toward the main controls. "Activating defense mechanisms," he said.

Above the controls where monitors broadcasting the exterior of the ship. Through them, I could see large guns fold themselves out from the ship and begin firing towards the approaching ships. Suddenly, I heard more and more thuds coming from the back of the ship, all creating more and more dents. And then, _crash_. The window shattered, creating a suction into the depths of space. An alarm went off and a red light started spinning around overhead.

"The main engine is out!" Ori yelled. "Everyone, take cover!" without another thought, Reece and I ducked under the tables. We could feel the entirety of the ship begin to shake violently as we began to approached earth's surface. I covered my head and held my body as close together as possible. I could feel the ship speeding up, forcing my body to fly backward.

I must have hit my head, because the next thing I knew I was surrounded by the rubble of a crashed ship, somewhere in the middle of Old Russia. I tried to stand up, but a throbbing pain in my head forced me back down. I looked around the rubble and saw unconscious Reece trapped underneath a pile of rubble. I ignored the pain in my head and ran over to his aid. I began throwing chunks of rubble off Reese's body until I could pull him to safety. If I still had any debt I still needed to repay him after he saved my life, it was paid. Reece groaned as I pulled him to safety. I laid him down on his back and tried to shake him awake. He groaned again as his eyes began to open.

"Zokan?" he asked. "What… what happened?"

"Fallen ships shot us out of the air," I replied. "Are you gonna be ok?"

"Ya," he said shakily. "Ya, I'll be ok," he tried to pick himself up but I forced him back down.

"You can't walk," I said. "Not in this condition," with all my strength, I lifted him up onto my back and stood up.

"You sure about this?" Reece asked concerned.

"No," I honestly replied. "But I'm not left with much of a choice here. We have to get to the base somehow,"

"We need to find a safe place first. Someplace to recover," Reece suggested. "A place to make camp," that's when I noticed how low the sun was already at. I began walking in the direction of the Fallen base, north. It could take days to get there on foot, especially at this rate, but what else was I supposed to do? I felt Ori in my pocket, unconscious. I would have to make sure the three of us got someplace safe and fast. Hopefully, we lost the Fallen in the crash, and that we wouldn't have to deal with them again until we get to the base. The journey is hard enough for us as it is.


End file.
